


Turn the Page

by anr



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2504732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anr/pseuds/anr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's Cordelia Chase, damnit, and she's going to be a <i>star</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turn the Page

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Pre- _City Of_ (1x01)
> 
> Request: Cordelia

1.

Despite the fact that her life sometimes used to feel like it had degenerated into an unending season of hazardous episodes (thank you Sunnyhell), and the part where she _knows_ the world has way too many monsters under every bed (thank you Buffy et al), her self-preservation skills are still very much intact, and current, and not about to let some down-in-her-dumps interlude get the best of her.

She's Cordelia Chase, damnit, and she's going to be a _star_.

 

2.

If she'd given it any kinda thinking at all (which she hadn't because, hello, _not an insane person_ ) she would have bet that her demon goo days were finished the moment the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign had faded behind her.

Stepping over the slimy, squidgy little _thing_ she's just spiked with her stiletto, she stares at the fluids on the side of her shoe and shudders.

"Ugh. Why is it always _ichor_?"

 

3.

She got to keep all her photos after the epic fire sale the IRS held in her house but the frames (silver, mostly, and polished every other day by Lucy) weren't so lucky.

Sifting through the loose kodaks she now keeps in a Jimmy Choo box (its contents another casualty), she comes across a photo of herself and Harmony from their junior year and pauses long enough to mourn their lost friendship (and limitless shopping sprees).

"So long, Harm," she says into the relative quietude of her crummy little apartment. "There but for the grace of an audit."

 

4.

She does get a couple of jobs in those first few weeks. A catalogue print ad for shoes (well, work boots) and a gig as a ribbon-hander-outer at _Dr Elsey's Precious Cat Litter World Championship Cat Show 2000_.

Both _well_ below any normal standards she'd normally have... but acceptable enough for preventing starvation.

At least for a little while.

 

5.

Sometimes, when she gets home, she walks quickly to the window that overlooks the street and just stands there for way too long, searching the traffic and pedestrians and shadows for anyone who could have followed her (like a vampire, or demon, or -- worse! -- somebody who knew her from _before_ ).

When she's sure she's alone, she closes the blinds and releases the breath she's been holding just about all damn day.

It's less mascara-ruining then crying.

 

6.

Her rent's overdue, the electricity hasn't been paid, and the only things she's eaten all week have come out of _cans_ and, oh god, she is just so _bad_ at this 'making it in LA' thing and that just crazes her like nothing else because _how_ can she be so terrible at this? (No, seriously, _how_?) She survived those last two months in Sunnydale on her own just fine (mostly) and the four years of knowing Buffy before that (again with the mostly) and, hell, even her time spent dating Xander wasn't this much of a train wreck (except for where it _was_ , ending in her own special brand of social apocalypse and all, but still).

Still!

Shaking her head, she sits up straighter and focuses on her inner chi.

"I am somebody."

 

7.

She takes the bus now.

 

8.

Even if she had been considering using magic to solve her problems (which she hadn't been, not even a little) (well, okay, not _seriously_ ), the landlord complaint she gets after her trip to the markets puts paid to that idea.

"I swear, you try street fair incense _once_ and suddenly everybody with a snoz is all, 'ooh, Satan!'"

As much as she abhors living here, she knows it's better than nearly every single other one of her alternate alternatives.

 

9.

Okay, so she does miss her parents more than she misses her -- their -- money (of _course_ she does) but not as much as she misses the parents she had when she was little (mommy. daddy. _i love you._ ) and didn't yet understand that money was a poor substitute for attention.

 

10.

The day before Margo's party (not that she's been counting down to it or anything since she ate the last of what was left in her measly ol' Hubbard of a pantry), she stakes a vampire.

It's only the second one she's ever dusted solo (the first being at graduation) and after she's thrown away the broken piece of crate she'd just used as a stake, she brushes the ashes from her dress and takes a moment to be all proudy and _Go Team-Cordy!_ while she continues to wait for her bus.

Maybe her luck's finally changing after all.

  


* * *

The End


End file.
